Wine Making in the New World . . .

Photos by Marilyn Barrett
Taste Ventana Wines

"Real art is in the vineyard," insists Doug Meador. He planted the Ventana Vineyard in Monterey County in the early 1970s. Since then, his innovative farming methods have brought him wide acclaim as well as disbelieving looks as he battles the cult of the winemaker. Over the last twenty years, Meador witnessed a quiet revolution in America as fine cuisine escaped San Francisco, Manhattan and New Orleans. Ordinary Americans got a taste for jet travel, good food and decent wine. Meador established the Ventana Vineyards in 1978 with great enthusiasm for a new region, a strong belief in the land and a vision of world class wines.

Ventana Vineyard is a research facility, where the natural attributes of the Monterey growing conditions are utilized in combination with progressive farming techniques -- some brand new and some taken from the Old World. Some historic falsehoods Meador wants to obliterate are myths about lower quantity harvests yielding better quality grapes, and the fixed laws of spacing between planted rows of vines.

Science and art of winemaking... "The art is to get the flavors," says Meador. The science is to use observation and tools correctly to establish a system which produces the flavors. Meador studies the effects of light on the fruit, effects of wind on photosynthesis, vineyard cycles and row planting width. Meador was one of the first wine makers in the world to use membrane technology, rather than plates, for pressing grapes. Such gentleness results in fewer oils, fewer bitters and more gallons per ton.

The Ventana Vineyard is planted on calcareous and granite rock and gravel running to depths of 35 to 90 feet deep. The terroir provides superlative drainage, low nutritional levels and a large unconfined area for the grape roots to explore. Each afternoon and evening a cool breeze drawn from the Monterey Bay and the Pacific Ocean drops the Vineyard temperature, causing the coldest growing area in the US during the growing season. The very slow growing condition caused by chill temperatures is offset by a growing season in excess of eight months a year. With proper crop loading and careful farming, the deep rocky soil and long, slow ripening season intensify the varietal character and maintenance of good acid with high sugars.

The Ventana Vineyard is located on the west side of the Salinas Valley in Monterey County, just east of the Ventana Wilderness area of the Santa Lucia Mountains. Year after year, variety after variety, the wines of Ventana are consistently judged highly in state, national and international competitions. Over the last fifteen years, wines made from grapes grown on the Ventana Vineyard have received more awards than any other vineyard, cumulative, ever.

Come taste why we win awards.

WORLD WIDE WINE

Tasting Room The Ventana Vineyards Tasting Room is open from 11am to 5pm seven days a week. Call 800/BEST-VIN or 831/372-7415 for more information. Web: Ventana Vineyards

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